CASANA has made it a policy to share information through its Apraxia-KIDSSM resources for legitimate research projects that are currently recruiting subjects. In order to be accepted, the projects must be related to apraxia or related research and must meet certain requirements established by CASANA’s Professional Advisory Board. The most important requirement is that all projects shared through Apraxia-KIDSSM resources must provide evidence of approval from an Institutional Review Board or Human Subjects Oversight Board. These entities assure that research projects are ethical and are safe.

**We share this as information only. Parents and families must use their best judgement regarding participating in research projects.

My colleagues and I aim to identify genes that influence speech disorders including childhood apraxia of speech. There is evidence that speech disorders run in families, but the genetic causes are not yet well understood. To find genes that influence speech disorders, we will use a newly available approach to gene discovery, next-generation exome sequencing followed by bioinformatic gene filtering. We are looking for families with speech disorders. Besides at least one child age 5 years or older who currently has difficulty with her or his speech, we want to include parents and other relatives, for instance siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins of any age (minimum: 2 months). In each family, at least four members should have speech difficulties, either now or in the past. Each participant will undergo speech, language, verbal/nonverbal processing, and movement tests and donate a small amount of DNA. Results will contribute to our knowledge of the biological causes of speech difficulties and help identify children at risk for speech difficulties so that they can benefit from early intervention.

This study is funded with an NIH R03 research grant and was reviewed and approved by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division. It will be conducted at the University of Washington in Seattle and other locations. In some cases where families wish to participate in the study but live too far away from Seattle, it may be possible to meet at a location more convenient for the family. We provide free parking and a reimbursement of $30.00 for each participant.

Inclusion/Exclusion criteria:

To identify genes associated with speech sound disorder (SSD), multigenerational families with evidence of a familial form of SSD are invited to participate. Families can self-refer to the study or be referred by a speech-language pathologist. The families will be recruited based on the following criteria:

The proband participant will be a child preschool age or older with a current diagnosis of moderate to severe SSD.

There should be a family history of SSD where the “ever affected” members should have current or past evidence of SSD.

Participants should be native speakers of American English. They should be free of other neurodevelopmental disorders of unknown genetic origin to control for other rare genetic variants that could confound exome sequencing results. Participants should have no other communication problems.

Hearing loss should be ruled out as associated with SSD.

Each family should have at least four members who currently have, or had in the past, a diagnosis of speech sound disorder including childhood apraxia of speech.

Benefit, if any, for subjects:

There are no direct benefits to the participants. However, the research has potential benefits to society in that knowledge about the genes that contribute to these complex disorders will increase our understanding of speech sound disorders, both in terms of behavioral manifestations and genetic substrates. This will lead to improved diagnostic methods, early identification of at-risk status, and new research questions about more tailored interventions and early intervention. For instance, individuals at risk for speech sound disorder may be identified before they experience communication difficulty and earlier intervention may result in faster and more complete compensation. Molecular findings will motivate new research investigating the biochemical pathways of the altered genes and possible pharmacogenetic applications. Therefore, the risks to participants are reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefits to others.

Looking for children with motor speech disorders (due to Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, TBI, etc.) to participate in study on children’s speech!

What are we studying?We are studying how changing certain aspects of both disordered and typical children’s speech (such as loudness, rate, and adding emphasis) affects how well children are understood.

Why are we doing this research study?
Our goal is to learn how certain interventions may help children with speech disorders be more easily understood.

To be eligible for this study, a child should:

Be between 3 and 10 years old

Have a motor speech disorder (dysarthria or apraxia of speech)

Have normal hearing, and adequate (corrected) vision and cognition to complete tasks

Speak English as the primary language

What will the child do?
Be recorded as they imitate sentences presented on a computer

Does your child have a diagnosis of speech disorder?
Your family may be a candidate for a research study at the University of Utah!

A family study at the University of Utah and University of Washington is looking for participants to find out how difficulties with learning to speak are inherited. Children with speech disorders may qualify for this study. We want to include the whole family in this study: the child, both biological parents, siblings, and, if available, grandparents and other relatives. Besides the child with a speech disorder, at least two other family members must have a speech disorder also, or have had one in the past. Everyone who participates will be asked to complete some or all of the following tasks: speech, language, reading, and reasoning tests, do hand movement tasks, and give a small amount of blood or saliva. Your family may qualify for this study if your child has a speech disorder without a known cause.

Who?
Children with a speech disorder, currently between age 4 ½ years and 9 (at least 5 years old at the time of testing)

Where?
University of Utah

When?
Starting now; by appointment

How long?
Approximately 3 – 4 hours

Pay?
Reimbursement is $30.00 for each family member who participates, plus parking expenses.

Confidential?
As in all studies conducted by the University of Utah and the University of Washington, your privacy will be protected.

Note:Click here to view information about the same study at the University of Washington.

[This study was approved by the Internal Review Board of the University of Utah. The information posted on this site is consistent with the research reviewed and approved by the University of Utah Institutional Review Board (IRB). However, the IRB has not reviewed all material posted on this site. Contact the IRB if you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant. Also contact the IRB if you have questions, complaint, or concerns which you do not feel you can discuss with the investigator. The University of Utah IRB may be reached by phone at (801) 581-3655 or by e-mail at irb@hsc.utah.edu ]

Speech Planning and Production in Children with Speech Sound Disorders of Unknown Origin – ARIZONA
Edwin Maas, Ph.D., University of Arizona

SEEKING: CHILDREN WITH CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH FOR RESEARCH STUDY

The University of Arizona’s Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences is conducting a study on speech production in children with speech sound disorders of unknown origin, including childhood apraxia of speech. This study combines picture naming tasks with acoustic measures of speech, in order to gain a better understanding of the underlying nature of the speech problem. This study and all procedures have been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Arizona.

We are looking for children:

* between 5 and 11 years old
* who speak only English at home,
* who have a diagnosis of (suspected) childhood apraxia of speech, and
* who have normal hearing and cognitive skills

As part of the study we will test your child’s speech, language, and hearing. The study involves computer games in which children say the names of common objects or funny animals, and say whether a word is pronounced correctly or not. Children will receive prizes for their participation.

The study takes place at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and involves up to 5 visits of no more than one hour, scheduled at a time that is convenient to you. There is no cost for participation except transportation costs. Free parking is available.

If you have any questions, or are interested in having your child participate, please contact the Investigator, Dr. Edwin Maas at (520) 626-6460 or by e-mail at emaas@email.arizona.edu .

Overview – The study will test how the brain responds to speech. Children will participate in one session lasting about 2-2.5 hours. Children will be audio recorded when they talk as they identify pictures and repeat sentences. They will also wear a cap that measures brain activity (EEG), and will speak words into a microphone while wearing headphones at Haskins Laboratories. We will reimburse families $10 per half hour for their time.

Inclusion/exclusions:Two Groups of children are eligible:

Children ages 9-15 years with no history of speech or language problems

Children ages 9-15 years with childhood apraxia of speech

About Confidentiality – We will record participants’ age and sex as well as some basic information on language history (e.g., family history of speech or language problems).Participants will be assigned a number, and analyses will be done by code with no mention of any participants’ name. Names will never appear in any publication or be mentioned in any public place in connection with this project. Although acoustic recordings will be made of participants’ voices during the study, they will only be recorded producing simple syllables, words, or phrases. Nothing of a personal nature will be recorded. All private identifiable information about participants will be stored in a separate, locked file from research data.

Inclusion/exclusions – The criteria for subject inclusion for participants are diagnosis of autism or a characterization of developmental speech/language delay based on prior assessment. The criteria for children with speech/language delay will be a diagnoses of a speech or language disorder with no known cause. For all participants, exclusion criteria are bilingualism or non-native English speakers and uncorrected hearing or vision impairments, all characteristics that preclude a participant from completing the study task.

About Confidentiality– We will record participants’ age and sex as well as some basic information on language history (e.g., family history of speech or language problems).Participants will be assigned a number, and analyses will be done by code with no mention of any participants’ name. Names will never appear in any publication or be mentioned in any public place in connection with this project. All private identifiable information about participants will be stored in a separate, locked file from research data. It will be used only by research staff for the purposes of contacting participants.

Overview:Children who have more difficulty producing speech sounds than other children their age are at a greater risk of experiencing difficulties at school. Speech therapy procedures to improve children’s speech accuracy are effective. However, not all children show the same rate of progress when they receive speech therapy. In this study we aim to observe whether some children respond better to certain combinations of speech therapy procedures than others.

Eligibility:
If your child is approaching school age and continues to produce inconsistent speech errors that are not expected at your child’s age, he/she could be eligible to participate. Assessment will be required to determine if the child is appropriate for this study. See the Recruitment flyer below for more information.

Study Overview:The Motor Speech Laboratory in the Department of Communicative Sciences at NYU is currently recruiting participants for an ongoing study about motor learning in children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). We will measure lip and jaw movements of children while they produce both novel and familiar words. Children will practice these words within a paradigm designed according to principles of motor learning that are often recommended for treatment of CAS. We are looking at what types of motor strategies children with CAS use to learn new words and how these strategies differ between typically developing and speech impaired children. We will also look at short-term within session changes, in addition to whether these changes are maintained three days later. This information could potentially contribute to our understanding of how children with CAS learn new words and how clinicians can use this information to guide treatment.

All participants will receive a speech-language evaluation and hearing screening as part of the study, in addition to a $100 gift card and $20 travel reimbursement.

Location:
Children will be tested at Department of Communicative Sciences, New York University, 665 Broadway, 9th floor, New York, NY.

Exclusions:
We are unable to accept children who demonstrate receptive language or cognitive deficit scores more than 1 Standard Deviation below the mean on a standardized test; oral structural deficits, fluency disorders, or who fail a hearing screening.